Centre-left opposition Democratic
Party (PD) lreader Elly Schlein on Tuesday criticised
Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Minsiter Francesco Lollobrigida
for saying Italy's low birth rate meant Italians were enduring
"ethnic replacement", saying the ministers words smacked of
"supremacist" tropes and took Italy back to the days of Fascism.
"Minister Lollobrigida's words are disgusting, they are
unacceptable words from someone in his position. They take us
back to the 1930s, they are words that have the flavour of white
supremacism', said Schlein.
"I hope that (Premier) Giorgia Meloni and the government will
distance themselves from these statements,' she concluded, "made
on the day that President (Sergio) Mattarella is visiting
Auschwitz."
Lollobrigida, a senior member of Meloni's rightwing Brothers of
Italy (FdI) party, said earlier that "births cannot be
incentivised by persuading people to spend more time at home, so
that relations intensify, as some people have said.
"The way (to boost Italy's flagging birth rate) is to build a
welfare that enables (women) to work and have a family, support
young couples to find jobs. We can't give in to the idea of
ethnic replacement: The Italians are having fewer children, so
we'll replace them with someone else. That's not the way".
Fascist dictator Bentio Mussolini urged loyal Fascist mothers to
have as many children as they could and gave awards to parents
with large families.
Before becoming premier, Meloni in some of her fiery election
campaign speeches paid lip service into the Great Replacement
conspiracy theory, which claims there are plots to substitute
historical populations with migrants.
Since becoming premier she has not repeated those statements.
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